The Decena Family home movie archives reflect the family dynamic created by Louis Decena's conscription into the US Army in 1950. Originally born in the Philippines in 1930, he immigrated aboard a merchant marine vessel at the age of 16, reconnecting with an Uncle and Aunt in the Bay Area. After being drafted into the armed services, "home" was never more than a few years stay. Medi-vacced to Tokyo from the Korean War he met Chieko Muto in 1951. Married in 1953, they had three sons, Peter, Paul and Mark, while stationed in places such as Tacoma, WA, Baltimore, MD, the Panama Canal Zone, and Oakland, CA. The family then went back to Japan at the start of the Vietnam War, where Master Sargent Louis Decena did two tours of duty. After unreconcilable differences, the marriage ended in 1964. Chieko moved with her three sons to Fremont, CA where she raised them as a single parent, until she remarried James Butler in 1976. Louis Decena moved back to the Bay Area with his second family in 1972.

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